Thursday, April 15, 2010

Cluelessness, parental version

I love seeing kids and dogs together. The dogs I grew up with highlighted my childhood, and to this day I am a total sucker for sentimental kids-and-dogs movies, and have been known to watch reruns of Timmy and Lassie well into adulthood. But even I, as sentimental as I am, know that kids and dogs together can also be disasters waiting to happen. Generally, that's not the fault of either the kids or the dogs. The blame lies squarely with their clueless parents.

Take the two little girls I saw yesterday afternoon while Allie and I were walking. They couldn't have been older than early grade school -- seven years old at most -- but they were walking a bouncy puppy who was at least two-thirds their size, with nary an adult in sight. As I watched them, I was imagining all kinds of worst case scenarios in which they could lose control of that puppy, such as:

-- the puppy getting *really* bouncy and knocking one or both of them over.-- the puppy seeing a squirrel cross its path and deciding to give chase, dragging one of the little girls behind him.-- the puppy reacting -- strenuously -- to the barking of either the two dogs whose house they were passing or crossing the street and running afoul of the dog who charges at her fence whenever she sees another canine passing.

I could just see the parents opining that the little girls needed to learn about being responsible, which is why they'd gotten the dog in the first place, yadda yadda yadda. But I found myself hoping that those little girls wouldn't learn instead about what it's like to see their dog die because their parents had no idea what responsibilities to lay on their children and when.

My niece really, really wants to hold the leash when we walk Lilly, and I let her, but I'm right there, and if I see *anything* that might make Lilly flip, I take the reins for a while ... just to be sure.

Ooops, I forgot one thing. My 4 and 6 year old nephews always want to hold the leash, but we hold on *with* them, knowing that our dogs could take them for quite a ride if the right stimulus appears! Two leashes on one dog has been another trick that's worked (an adult holds one and the kid holds the other).

I understand what you're saying, KB, even though I made it a point to get my 11-year-old dog ready for welcoming a human baby into our family 21-some years ago. Lack of sleep and the whole tunnel-vision aspect of parenting can make for some humongous misjudgments on the part of new parents. But these little girls were way past infancy -- time enough, one would think, for the parents to recover some semblance of sanity. And your ideas re managing kids and leashed dogs are spot on, IMO.

About Me

No, this is not a picture of me. This smiling face belongs to Allie, the eight-year-old Golden Retriever for whom this blog is named. I'm an award-winning writer who specializes in companion animal topics, especially those pertaining to dogs. In addition to my writing for periodicals, I've also written six books about dog care, including the best-selling Housetraining For Dummies. On this blog, I'll explore various aspects of living with dogs and writing about them -- with occasional detours into totally unrelated topics (because I can!). Enjoy!